 I’m sitting in my kitchen in London, trying to figure out a text message from my brother. 我坐在位于倫敦的我的廚房里,，試圖搞清楚我哥哥發(fā)來的信息的意思。 He lives in our home country of Germany. 他住在我們的祖國德國。 We speak German to each other, a language that’s rich in quirky words, but I’ve never heard this one before: fremdsch?men. 'Stranger-ashamed’? 我們之間說德語,，這種語言有很多生僻詞，不過這個詞我從來沒見過：fremdsch?men,，“令陌生人害羞”? I’m too proud to ask him what it means. 我拉不下臉去問他什么意思,。 I know that eventually, I’ll get it. 我知道最后，我還是能看懂的,。 Still, it’s slightly painful to realise that after years of living abroad, my mother tongue can sometimes feel foreign. 不過,，我還是很難過地意識到了在國外居住多年之后，我的母語有時反而感覺成了外語了,。 Most long-term migrants know what it’s like to be a slightly rusty native speaker. 大部分長期僑居的人們都知道母語有點生疏的感覺,。 The process seems obvious: the longer you are away, the more your language suffers. 這個過程是顯而易見的：出國越久，你的母語就會越差,。 But it’s not quite so straightforward. 不過這是一個積累的過程,。 In fact, the science of why, when and how we lose our own language is complex and often counter-intuitive. 事實上，我們生疏自己母語的原因,，時間和方式是非常復(fù)雜,，還經(jīng)常是反直覺的。 It turns out that how long you’ve been away doesn’t always matter. 結(jié)果表明你出國多久并不一定是最重要的,。 Socialising with other native speakers abroad can worsen your own native skills. 跟其他外國當(dāng)?shù)氐娜藗兩缃徊艜魅跄愕哪刚Z技能,。 And emotional factors like trauma can be the biggest factor of all. 而像心理創(chuàng)傷這樣的情感因素才是最重要的因素,。 It’s also not just long-term migrants who are affected, but to some extent anyone who picks up a second language. 而且，不止是長期的僑民們會如此,，凡是學(xué)外語的人們都會或多或少受到影響,。 “The minute you start learning another language, the two systems start to compete with each other,” says Monika Schmid, a linguist at the University of Essex. “一旦你開始學(xué)習(xí)另一種語言，這兩種語言系統(tǒng)就會相互競爭,，”莫妮卡.施密德說,，她是艾塞克斯大學(xué)的語言學(xué)家。 Schmid is a leading researcher of language attrition, a growing field of research that looks at what makes us lose our mother tongue. 施密德是語言耗損的研究帶頭人,，這個領(lǐng)域研究的是什么讓我們失去了自己母語,。 In children, the phenomenon is somewhat easier to explain since their brains are generally more flexible and adaptable. 在孩子們身上，這種現(xiàn)象也許更容易解釋因為他們的大腦通常更為靈活有適應(yīng)性,。 Until the age of about 12, a person’s language skills are relatively vulnerable to change. 在12歲之前,，一個人的語言技能是相對比較容易改變的。 Studies on international adoptees have found that even nine-year-olds can almost completely forget their first language when they are removed from their country of birth. 對國際上被領(lǐng)養(yǎng)孩子的研究表明甚至9歲大的孩子當(dāng)從祖國搬走之后都有可能完全忘記自己的母語,。 But in adults, the first language is unlikely to disappear entirely except in extreme circumstances. 不過在成年人中,，除非有特殊情況，母語一般不會完全被忘記,。 For example, Schmid analysed the German of elderly German-Jewish wartime refugees in the UK and the US. 例如,，施密德分析了之前德尤大戰(zhàn)時期移民英國和美國的難民。 The main factor that influenced their language skills wasn’t how long they had been abroad or how old they were when they left. 影響他們的母語技能的主要因素并不是他們出國了多久或者當(dāng)他們離開時有多大,。 It was how much trauma they had experienced as victims of Nazi persecution. 而是他們作為納粹迫害的受害人經(jīng)歷的創(chuàng)傷有多少,。 Those who left Germany in the early days of the regime, before the worst atrocities, tended to speak better German – despite having been abroad the longest. 那些在政府早期離開德國的人們，沒有見證最殘忍的暴行,，他們的德語說得更好——盡管他們出國時間最長,。 Those who left later, after the 1938 pogrom known as Reichskristallnacht, tended to speak German with difficulty or not at all. 而那些晚些移民的人們，在1938年的水晶之夜之后遷走的人們,，德語說得很差甚至都不會說了,。 “It seemed very clearly a result of this trauma,” says Schmid. “看起來很明顯是因為創(chuàng)傷的緣故，”施密德說道,。 Even though German was the language of childhood, home and family, it was also the language of painful memories. 盡管德語是兒時,，故鄉(xiāng)和家里的語言，它同時也是有痛苦記憶的語言,。 The most traumatised refugees had suppressed it. 那些創(chuàng)傷最嚴(yán)重的難民們因此而壓抑了它,。 As one of them said: “I feel that Germany betrayed me. America is my country, and English is my language.” 正如他們當(dāng)中的一人說的那樣：“我感覺德國背叛了我。美國才是我的祖國,，英語才是我的語言,。” “Attrition is not a bad thing. It’s just a natural process,” she says. “語言耗損也不是壞事,。它是一個自然的過程,，”她說道,。 “These people have made changes to their grammar that is consistent with their new reality... Whatever allows us to learn languages also allows us to make these changes.” “這些人們改變了自己的語法來適應(yīng)新的生活...無論是什么讓我們學(xué)習(xí)了新語言，它也會讓我們做出這種改變,?！?/p> It is nice to be reminded that from a linguist’s point of view, there is no such thing as being terrible at your own language. 令人感到安慰的是從語言學(xué)家的角度來看，說不好自己的母語也沒關(guān)系,。 And native language attrition is reversible, at least in adults: a trip home usually helps. 而母語的耗損是可逆的,，至少在成年人身上是：一趟歸國之旅通常會有所幫助。 Still, for many of us, our mother tongue is bound up with our deeper identity, our memories and sense of self. 不過,，對我們很多人來說,，我們的母語跟我們內(nèi)心深處的認(rèn)同感，我們的記憶和自己的認(rèn)知深深聯(lián)系在一起,。 Which is why I for one was determined to crack my brother’s mysterious text about 'fremdsch?men’ without any outside help. 這就是為什么我決定不靠別人幫助自己解開我哥哥的信息之謎的原因,。 To my relief, I figured it out pretty quickly. 令我釋懷的是，我很快就想出來了,。 Fremdsch?men describes the sensation of watching someone do something so cringeworthy that you are embarrassed on their behalf. Fremdsch?men這個詞描述的是看到某人做尷尬的事連你自己都替他們感到尷尬了的感覺,。 Apparently, it’s a popular word and has been around for years. 明顯地，它是一個常用詞,，并且由來已久,。 It just passed me by, like countless other trends back home. 我和它錯過了，如同很多老家的流行詞一樣,。 After 20 years abroad, I shouldn’t be surprised by this. 在出國了二十年之后,，我不應(yīng)該對此感到意外,。 Still, I have to admit that there is something a bit sad about my own brother using words I no longer understand; a hint of loss, perhaps, or unexpected distance. 不過,，我得承認(rèn)連自己哥哥的話都不理解還是有點心酸：仿佛一種失落又或許是一種意想不到的距離。 There’s probably a German word for that, too. But I’ll need a bit more time to recall it. 這種感覺說不定也有德語詞對應(yīng),。不顧我需要一點時間才能回想起來,。 感謝關(guān)注 跟amber一起看世界 確定不關(guān)注一波嗎 |
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